Three white men involved in the beating and fatal rundown of a black man in Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to federal hate crimes, a day after one of them pleaded guilty in state court to a murder charge. Dylan Butler, 20; Deryl Dedmon, 19; and John Aaron Rice, 19; entered the pleas in federal court in Jackson, Miss., to conspiracy to commit a hate crime and to committing a hate crime.

View full sizeRogelio V. Solis, The Associated PressIn this Aug. 11, 2011 photo, a pickup truck speeds past the site were authorities say James Anderson, a black man, was deliberately run over by a white teenager in south Jackson, Miss.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves set sentencing for June 8 and ordered all three to be held in custody.

Prosecutors read the allegations against the three, saying that on numerous occasions one or all three harassed or assaulted black people who they thought were homeless or intoxicated. Victims were chosen because they thought they would not tell police, authorities said.

The harassment began in April 2011, culminating in the death of James Craig Anderson on June 26.

Each is charged with the same two crimes. They face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to life on the hate crime charge.

Butler and Rice were accused of being with Dedmon the night Anderson was run over and on at least one other occasion throwing beer bottles and using a slingshot to shoot marbles at black people. In addition, Dedmon and Rice were accused of beating at least two other black men on different occasions.

Several people wept in court during the hearing.

None of the defendants made statements during the hearing, speaking only briefly to answer questions from Reeves.

The victim's family had no comment.

Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, said: "This is really a case about a group of racist thugs who made a sport of targeting vulnerable African Americans."

View full sizeRogelio V. Solis, pool, The Associated PressFamily members of Deryl Dedmon cry Wednesday as he is sentenced to two concurrent life sentences after pleading guilty to murder and committing a hate crime in the June 2011 death of 47-year-old James Craig Anderson.

In entering his guilty plea to the state charges on Wednesday, Dedmon admitted he and a group of white teens were partying in Puckett, a small town outside Jackson, when he suggested they find a black man to harass and went to Jackson because of its majority-black population. They found Anderson before dawn outside a hotel. He was beaten before Dedmon ran over him.

The video, taken by a hotel surveillance camera, shows a green Ford truck back up in the hotel parking lot, then lunge forward. Anderson's shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle. Police said Dedmon was driving the truck and later bragged that he ran over Anderson.

Deryl Dedmon

Dedmon was initially indicted on state charges for capital murder, which in Mississippi carries a sentence of death or life in prison without parole, but District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith said prosecutors couldn't have gotten a conviction. For capital murder, there must be an underlying offense, which had been robbery. Smith said the investigation revealed that the group did not take Anderson's wallet, as investigators first believed.

Rice is charged by the state with simple assault in the case. Authorities said he left the scene in another vehicle before Anderson was killed. Rice has pleaded not guilty in that case and is free on a $5,000 bond.